Week #8 Progress Report 5/24/13

This week, our final design has been solidified. Our CAD and Revit work is just about complete. From this point on, the group will focus on editing our final paper, adding our energy calculations, and creating a PowerPoint to aid our final presentation. We did additional check to verify the costs of adding a green roof, cistern, and solar panels to the roof. Our takeaway in class this week was to make PowerPoint that is coherent, with a few diagrams, and little text. We will practice our presentation at least three times. We had some difficulty in our final report in condensing the research we had about green roofs, and will continue to edit and polish our report. We want to make sure our paper will fulfill the guidelines provided in the report template.

Week #7 Progress Report 5/15/13

This week we are planning to continue building our small model of the green roof layers, per our modified project schedule. The model will be fitted in a small tank to easily see and label the different layers. The layers will be made up of concrete, a waterproofing layer, some drainage, then a combination substrate that is 3" thick., and some planted sedums. 

Week #6 Progress Report 5/8/13

During week six we began to solidify the draft of our paper, adding in the "engineering" aspects of the project the project. According to the revised project weekly schedule the goals for Week 6 consist of purchasing the new materials needed for a 3-D model: sand, soil and vegetation, and beginning the construction of the model. The model will represent the different layers involved in building a green roof. The green roof is a project made viable by its many benefits: these include storm water management, extending roof life, and regulating building temperature. 

Many consider storm water runoff mitigation to be the primary benefit of green roofs due to the prevalence of impervious surfaces in urban and commercial areas and a failing storm water management infrastructure. Case studies of greens roofs done by engineering group Magnusson Klemencic Associates to quantify the costs of green roofs and the amount of runoff they create. Optimal soil cover was found to be four inches deep—a depth that would allow plant to take root, but also provide a volume through which it is easy for water to evaporate through. The studied roofs mitigated runoff from 65 to 94%, meaning that in best conditions, only 6% of rainfall became runoff, and cost of adding a green roof to a building costs about seven dollars per square foot. Another study shows that average percentage of roof rainfall retention ranged from 48.7% (gravel) to 82.8% (vegetated), highlighting that the significant element in retaining the storm water was the goring medium (soil), rather than the plants. 

Week #5 Progress Report 5/1/13

During week 5 the group continued to research green roof systems. We began to write a draft of our final project, each writing about our assigned topics, and sharing new articles as we found them.  We decided that our final report will primarily consist of a paper that details our design plan for the system, an evaluation of the benefits and considerations, and a Revit rendering of the system.  In addition to the paper we debated creating a scale model of the final roof design, but decided that because of time constraints this idea would not be feasible. We have decided that we will be using the energy engineering program eQuest to model the current energy uses and costs of Hagerty Library, and how adding the green roof and cistern system will effect energy used and HVAC costs.

This week we found out about the group, Drexel Smart House. It is a student club that involves undergraduate and graduate students of multiple disciplines in Drexel's College of Engineering. The group has been awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in research grants in their goal to convert an existing house in Powelton Village into a living laboratory for the most environmentally friendly building possible, involving a living roof, storm water collection and rain filtration systems, and using environmentally friendly construction materials. In terms of their green roof, they are currently working on the development of an extremely light soil that allows water to transpire easily, and are growing sedum plants to be used on their roof in the University greenhouse.

Drexel Smart House from Drexel Smart House on Vimeo.